Stopwatch is killing me :-D

[KimboHalfSlice]

Every day I have an hour-long break from work, and the gym is about 3 minutes away, so I fly to the gym and get some of my workout done.

There about 5 days ago, I had an errand to run on my break, so by the time I reached the gym I only had about 15 minutes. Being in a rush, I only gave 30 seconds in between sets. My muscles burned so much more, and they were so much more sore the next day. I found this interesting...

...so I went out and bought a stopwatch, the kind you wear around your neck. After every set, I hit the button and let it count to thirty, and then I'm straight back into the next set.

I've done this for three days now, for my chest workout, back workout and leg workout. And by Christ it's taking a toll on me. The workouts are so much harder, and I'm so much sorer the next day... which leads me to believe that I'm getting a way better workout by leaving so little time between sets!

Sure I know you can just count to 30 in your head, but for me the stopwatch adds a sense of urgency. In the past, somebody might approach me between sets and I might end up chatting for 2 or 3 minutes, but now the stopwatch beeps and I'm like "oh s**t I better get back to this".

It'll be interesting to see if I grow at a faster rate. I've got 5 weeks left of a Testosterone Enanthate cycle :-D

One other thing... for the first 10 weeks of my cycle I was doing sets of 5 reps, but now I've jumped up to 12. Do you grow faster with 12 reps? If anything, the shock will do me good.

[Matt]

Its always good to switch your routine around, this is to shock your muscles into growth. However for a better reponse you should have posted this in the training forum...

[Dukkit]

like mad matt said

but in the end youll probably want to switch back to min or more rest periods. cuz eventually youll get burned out or used to 30 sec rests

[ninesecz]

what you are doing is considered "circuit training" and is great for cutting up and getting tone. As far as gaining muscle size and a lot of strength it is not the best way to do it

[TITANIUM]

what you are doing is considered "circuit training" and is great for cutting up and getting tone. As far as gaining muscle size and a lot of strength it is not the best way to do it

Basically bulking then cutting.
Old school is :bulking in the winter/cutting for the summer.

What are your goals?

My friend use to train with a stopwatch.Basically, in theory, when you catch your breath, next set.

[BOBBY D]

what your doing is great for cutting

[tinytom777]

sounds similar to german volume training which i am doing at the mo

you do 10 sets of 10 reps resting 60 seconds between sets, its a killer, but as mentioned above, vary your training, wouldn't do this for more than 4 weeks say, you'll burn out!

[KimboHalfSlice]

I currently just want to bulk bulk bulk.

Before I started this cycle, I was ripped, every ab was raised.

10 weeks later, you can just barely see the outline of my abs, and I've no vascularity at all. But of course, this was to be expected.

So I suppose I just wanna bulk for now, and then I'll get lean after the cycle by swimming and running.

I'm gonna go check out the training forum :-D